


Episode 5 - Carousel into Eternity

by kkthedoctor



Series: Doctor Who - The Alternative Doctor [5]
Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Whoniverse | Doctor Who Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-21
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:08:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,953
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22350829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kkthedoctor/pseuds/kkthedoctor
Summary: The Doctor is taking Alyssa on her first trip in the TARDIS, to a space station orbiting one of the universe's greatest wonders. It's the perfect destination.Except it's not long before the Doctor is hearing voices...Someone or something is crying out for help, and the Doctor is the only one with any chance of helping them.
Series: Doctor Who - The Alternative Doctor [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1432774
Collections: Doctor Who Fanfics





	Episode 5 - Carousel into Eternity

The Doctor was excited. Throwing his coat over the top of the blue tartan trousers and flecked navy jumper he had decided to wear, he took a tentative step out of the TARDIS' door. Close behind him was Alyssa, eyes closed and stumbling for the door. He gently guided her by pulling at the cuff of the leather jacket she had put over her dress, and she made it through the door and out into the vast room they had landed in.

She could hear hustle and bustle, people moving around not so far away. The air was cool, and carried the mixed smells of wood, fruit, and expensive perfumes. She could feel light trying to shine through her eyelids, as if she was stood in front of something very bright. The first glimpse of a wider universe just waiting to be seen.

"Okay. Open when you're ready."

The Doctor clasped his hands together and watched her expression closely as she slowly inched her eyes open. And as she did so they sparkled with joy at what she was seeing. He entire face lit up with wonder, and she beamed as her eyes skated over the vast view ahead of them.

They were stood in a vast chamber stretching up and down as far as the eye could see, split into levels where groups of beings sat on red leather seats in booths surrounded by ornate wooden carvings. They were all facing the window, its glass reaching across the entire face of the room and gifting them all with the sight hanging in space ahead of them.

It was beautiful. A psychedelic swirl of colour hanging in space, gas clouds swirling in and out of each other, painting rainbows in all directions. Spots of light kept erupting from within it, like fireworks but on a scale which stretched across the entire viewing range, throwing dancing projectiles in all directions which fizzed and popped with enormous intensity. Just as the eye settled on one part of the view, it would be drawn to the beauty of another part. Cosmic art being painting on the canvas of the void behind it.

"It is beautiful."

"One of the universe's greatest wonders. The Phosphorus Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestalt. Galaxies and galaxies away from Earth, beyond the dark matter reefs, a vast cloud of phosphorus hanging in space, but perfectly positioned such that it perpetually generates currents within itself to make the cloud dance. Truly unique. And wonderful."

"I could never have imagined the universe being this beautiful. I don't think I have the words."

"Maybe there aren't any that would quite do it justice."

"What are the flashes of light? Chemical reactions?"

"There are two observation stations, they fire concentrated spheres of gas into the cluster to create the vast ignitions. It expedites the natural reactions, brings the wonder to life."

Once the initial awe had worn off, the Doctor ushered Alyssa a few levels down until they found an available booth to settle in. A well dressed waiter shuffled over, his blue antennae twitching as he approached.

"May I offer you refreshment? Sir, madam?"

The Doctor fidgeted and tapped the table as he considered his response.

"Tea! Always in the mood for tea. 3 parts water, 1 part milk. Heaped teaspoon of sugar."

"Of course, Sir."

He turned expectantly to Alyssa, whos eyes widened and looked to the Doctor for help. He smiled reassuringly, remembering that such an ordinary request was an entirely alien experience for his young friend.

"She'll have something fruity. And fizzy. Make sure there's a colourful straw."

The waiter nodded politely and shuffled away.

"Thank you."

"Not to worry. The whole universe is a mix of fresh and strange experiences. Everything's new. Things like that will become familiar soon enough."

They sat for a while, Alyssa scanning her eyes over the whirlpool outside as well as the assorted alien beings scattered around her. The drinks came, hers a luminous green that almost glowed of its own volition. It popped and fizzed on her tongue, making her taste buds surge with its overwhelming, excitable flavour. 

Between gentle sips of tea, the Doctor reeled off stories of other wonders he had seen, quoting astronomical distances and space years without drawing breathe, gesturing his hands with exuberance . He told Alyssa he had been here before, with his wife, a long time ago. That made him pause for breath, and take a whistful sip of tea. His eyes seemed to glaze over with the rose hue of nostalgia.

"I haven't been given an understanding of love, Doctor. The concept sits in my brain, of course, but the feeling is a mystery to me."

"That makes you no different from anyone else in the universe. Love is the eternal mystery, something one can only clutch at in the air and marvel at its mystery, until one day it grabs you back. And in that moment you realise the universe isn't the stars or the moons or the wonders... It's one person. And that there's a force now inside you which would tear galaxies apart for them."

His eyes twinkled, and then he pulled a face, shattering the intensity of the words he had just said in the air that had hung between them.

"You're quite the master of words, Doctor."

She smiled, hiding the fact that deep down she was shuddering at the emotional ignition those words had triggered. Almost as if the Doctor had gifted her via those words a capacity to feel a little more than she had moments earlier. She hoped she could experience what the Doctor had described one day.

"Ooh the Master, now there's a few more stories I could tell you! Maybe another day, eh?"

In a dramatic sweep he gulped the last of his tea and stood up from the table. But in that instant his demeanor changed, the smile faded and a burning terror ignited in his eyes. He dropped the teacup, and as it shattered he slumped back into his chair. Alyssa could feel eyes upon them, just as the Doctor's suddenly tired eyes flickered open.

"Did you feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"Or hear it??"

"Hear what, Doctor? Talk to me, explain!"

He was gazing around, then leapt to his feet and beckoned her to follow his already flailing coat tails.

"Something just cried out. Pain. A searing, coursing pain straight through my brain. Something, somewhere is crying out."

"Like a psychic connection?"

They were through a door into an empty, quiet corridor, and he turned to face her, a little more composed.

"Quite right! Yes. Psychic. Tendrils reaching out in the dimension of the mind..."

Alyssa was quite proud that despite the distressing nature of the Doctor's experience, it was more in the realm of her understanding.

"Did anything like this happen last time you were here?"

"Oh no, no, no. I've never been here before, don't worry."

And with that he was off again.

*

The Doctor seemed to have a grasp of where his distressed party was. He was following a specific path, they'd gone all the way through the hospitality zone, then used his device to break through a hidden door into the engineering levels of the observation station. Here the light was dim, and hot metal pipes snaked up and down the walls. It reminded Alyssa a little too much of the place she had come from, but she kept her eyes fixed on the Doctor and tried to block out the surroundings.

"There it is again."

He clutched at his temple, wincing in pain. It was happening more frequently the further they descended, although he seemed to have better control over it after his initial collapse. All that worried Alyssa was the ever increasing confusion around his past with this place.

"I feel like it was down here last time... It's hazy though. The answer is trying to stare me in the face."

"Doctor, you seem confused. This thing seems to be affecting your memory."

"Can't see how it would, it's not like I've ever been... Oh. I see what you mean."

"Why would a psychic connection cause this?"

"Not a clue. Maybe this is bigger than that. Maybe it's a problem with time... Time repeating itself? Time overwriting? I don't know."

What he did know was where the scream was coming from. He could see it now. The image of the room at the back of his mind, focusing him right until the very moment they burst through its doors and startled the young operator sat inside it.

"Excuse me? Who are... You shouldn't be here!"

The boy was young, greasy, and wearing dark overalls two sizes too big for him. He jumped up from the bank of controls he was sat at. The Doctor was being frantic and fidgety, ducking behind the large crates which peppered the long platform they were on, even upturning some of them looking for what he was seeking.

Alyssa was drawn away though. Because this room was brighter, the claustrophobic anxiety of those maintenance corridors slowly evaporated off of her as she evaluated the space around them. A vast hangar sprawled out below them, with what looked like cannons burrowed deeply into the floor with rusting rivets. People scurried around them, picking up delicate spheres from the wooden crates and loading them into openings along the soot coated cannon barrels.

And in front of the cannons was the gaping mouth of space. No window, no shutters, just the near invisible flicker of an atmospheric shield and beyond it the dancing storm of colour. It looked even more beautiful down here, without anything blocking the intensity of its blazing light. It seemed such a force of nature - Alyssa could almost feel the concussion from the gases exploding and tearing their way through its heart.

"... suffering! Screaming out! Needs our help!"

"But it's just us down here sir, all we do is load the gases into the phase cannons. Nothing else out of the ordinary is here except for you, sir."

Alyssa phased back out from the Doctor's conversation, she had been drawn in by the swirling inferno again. Churning and pulsing and convulsing and swimming. Dancing, even. Pirouettes. But not delicate enough for pirouettes. Writhing. Writhing in pain. Searing hot anguish. The colour red bleeding through the others, like it was jumping out of the cloud and closer and closer towards her.

"Alyssa!"

Everything went dark, but as her eyes adjusted to the light, she realised the darkness was just the Doctor standing directly in front of her, with two fingers lightly placed on each of her temples.

"You felt it didn't you? You've gone as white as a sheet."

He furrowed his brow.

"It was the lights, Doctor."

"The lights?"

He released his hands and looked over his shoulder then back to her.

"It was like they called out to me."

"Called out to you? How could..."

His eyes widened, and he turned to survey the Phosphorus Carousel. Alyssa started to settle, as if her feet stood within her own boots again. The Doctor paced. The engineer looked confused.

"This room. The closest point of contact to the space outside. It isn't IN this room, it's reaching THROUGH this room. The closest point of contact."

"Sir, I don't understand, what are you saying."

"He's saying it's alive, aren't you Doctor?"

He nodded gently. 

"The Phosphorus Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestalt. A gestalt, by definition, being something which is greater than the sum of its parts. Even those who discovered and named it must have known. They must have felt it. A huge consciousness, contained within a cloud of gas hanging in space."

The room shook as the cannons fired in unison, hurtling the spheres of gas across space. Lights ignited within the cloud, and it's scream pierced into the Doctor's mind.

"It all makes sense now. The cannons, the screams, it's all the same all exactly the same!! I couldn't figure it out before either, I was too slow. And I've forgotten because time forbids me to remember. That scream spoke to both of me."

"You mean... There's another you on here?"

The Doctor was smiling now, as if the resolution had solidified in his addled mind.

"Remember what I said, Alyssa? Two observation stations."

"So that means on the other side of the cloud right now..."

They were interrupted by the engineer's control station crackling into life, a speaker was coughing and rumbling, a voice trying to break through.

"Station Beta, Station Beta, please respond!"

A woman's voice. One that put that gleam in the Doctor's eyes again. The engineer took his seat and leaned into the microphone.

"Station Beta responding, who is this??"

A pause on the radio, a moment's silence which conveyed exasperated eyes being rolled.

"Professor River Song. Calling from Station Alpha."

The engineer looked even more dumbstruck than he had for the last few minutes, but before he could respond the Doctor had stepped forward and unclipped the microphone from the control panel. He took a deep breath, even seemed to stand up straighter, then he spoke into the microphone.

"Station Beta hearing you loud and clear, what seems to be the problem?"

"The cannons. Switch them all off. Right now."

Another voice interrupted. An energetic but irritable southern English accent, belonging to a man who had probably just perched his glasses on his nose to look clever, the Doctor surmised.

"You've called it a GESTALT! Does it even occur to you what that means?? You've made a terrible..."

"Oh SHUT UP pretty boy, and sonic that. Leave this to me! Honestly..."

The look on the Doctor's face was completely alien to Alyssa, the sort of look that made it seem his emotions were bigger than he was, beaming out from within. He was just listening with great content, to the couple on the radio. A couple who, if she understood right, could only be him and his wife.

"Listen here. That wonder you're staring at IS ALIVE. Every fire of those cannons is torturing it. Turn. Them. Off. Now. Or so help me I'll be over there ramming a heel up your..."

The line crackled again. Thankfully.

"Consider it done, Professor River Song."

A pause. As if the response had caught her off guard. And hers then did the same to the Doctor.

"Thank you, sweetie."

The line went dead. The Doctor was bristling with glee. Did she know it was him? Surely not, impossible. But then again, she did always know... It mattered little. Warmth surged through his hearts and he placed the communicator back down.

With a twirl he produced his sonic screwdriver from his pocket and zapped the control panel with it. Sparks started to fly, and down below all the fluxing power links to the cannons grew dark and their barrels crashed back down to the floor with a thud.

"Doctor... That woman..."

He grabbed Alyssa by the hand.

"Quick, you won't want to miss this."

*

The Doctor and Alyssa had surged back through the maintenance shafts in a flash, and found themselves back on the viewing platform. Long shadows were starting to cast. The Gestalt in front of them was growing dark. They stood close to the window in excited anticipation.

"You showed great compassion down there."

Alyssa was taken aback.

"I didn't do anything, did I?"

"Humans have only a small, tiny, psychic facet to their minds. Most species do. They sat here and they never heard it. Never ever. But down there it reached out to you. It knew you were listening. Knew you had kindness in your heart, and that you would listen."

There was no response she could find the words for. She just felt warm, and content.

"River figured it out too. The other time I was here, right now over there. She had the compassionate eye to notice what was really happening."

He paused, as something outside began to stir.

"And just you watch what happens now. Because this is a thank you. Not from me, but from the creature you just helped to rescue."

And then the space outside ignited with a light so bright it dazzled the eyes of everyone watching. The Carousel burst back into life but with a spark of sheer joy and radiance that it touched not only the eyes, but the deeper minds of all the observers. Warm orange, succulent green, soothing blue, every colour of the rainbow smearing across the sky in all directions. A happiness, a kindness, radiating outwards. Rainbows dancing around each other, and diving into whirlpools of glittering silver and gold. Alyssa could almost swear she could hear soft voices singing from within.

"It's the most beautiful thing."

"Now born of kindness. They found this ancient being and thought they had to fire gases and chemicals at it to make it wonderful. But they didn't. Just a bit of kindness and the most beautiful, dazzling, natural experience presents itself for the joy of those it can connect with."

"Thank you, Doctor. For bringing me here. For everything."

He shrugged, modestly. She wondered if he actually understood how much of an enrichment she felt from this experience, from their friendship after such a short time. Neither of them spoke for a while after that. Maybe it was minutes, maybe it was hours, time became irrelevant.

They slipped away back into the TARDIS, and as the deep thrum of its engines echoed through the viewing platform and it began to fade away, the Phosphorus Carousel seemed to pause, and for a split second turned entirely a deep shade of blue, until its dance then carried on into enternity.

**Author's Note:**

> The Phosphorus Carousel of the Great Magellan Gestalt is a place/entity mentioned by the Tenth Doctor in The End of Time as part of his 'farewell tour', and I've had a headcanon for years of what it was and that it was a date with River Song. When I started writing this series I really wanted to use the location, and realised there was a way I could keep my other tale of events (which I may write some time) intact whilst also telling this story.


End file.
